Date: 1901
Source: Lenin Miscellany, vol. 26
Pages: 151-163

MATERIALS FOR THE LECTURE "ON THE REVOLUTION OF 1905"
JANUARY 1917.
a.
SOURCES.
Engels in Neue Zeit 1901 in critique of the Erfurt Programme.
NB: Trotsky: "Russia in the Period of Revolution"
The Petition of January 9. 55 Trotsky
Conclusion
(Beginning and End)
18715
PLAN.

1) January 22 (9) = beginning of the revolution. War accelerated it.
2) Brief account of events from January 22 onward.
3) Greatest transformations.
(Struve on January 7: There is no revolutionary people. 59. Trotsky).
Gapon—priest-revolutionary
Petition to the Tsar-Father. Revolution.
Direct appearance of the masses against the head of state power.
Revolutionaries: small group (several hundred)—leaders of the proletariat and thereby leaders of the revolution
Trotsky 423 at end.
4) Strikes (the first revolution in world history, which can best and most precisely be understood and studied according to the (history) statistics of strikes).

5) 45... (1895—1904) 80 (1903)
2800 (1905)—400 (January 1905)
(in one month as much as in 10 years before the revolution)
6) Waves of strikes
Vanguard and rearguard
Metalworkers and backward [workers]
North and Northwest = vanguard...
7) Economic and political strikes
8) Spring 1905—beginning of the peasant movement... (content of the bourgeois revolution)
9) June 28 (15), 1905—uprising on the "Potemkin"...
10) Three waves: wave of strikes—first, leading, independently organized peasant movement—almost incomparable (considerably weaker)
(unfortunately only one-fifteenth [of estates] burned out of 30,000)
11) Boycott of the August Duma... parliamentarism...
Military uprisings (compare 1825 versus 1905).
12) Culminating point: October and December 1905:
Meetings at the University... 174. Trotsky. Kharkov October 23, 1905
October: first mass strike of political and revolutionary character in the entire country.
(+Railway workers, postal officials p. 69. Trotsky
Manifesto of October 30 (17), 1905.
XII: Moscow uprising... 244 Trotsky: Gorky.
|9 days: 224 Trotsky|
(Max Weber on the role of the "Leninist Group")...
219: Trotsky. Cannon October 25, 1905 in Moscow.
222: Moscow 1905. Berlin 1848.
("Eight-hour workday and weapons." 464 Trotsky.
Maximum of political strikers... 8-hour workday. Defection of the bourgeoisie. Lockouts.
Maximum of the peasant movement...
Maximum of military uprisings...
185—6 (Trotsky): workers and peasants in military uprisings.
Soviets of workers' deputies...
13) Victory of the counter-revolution (December 1905)...
Loan of 2000 million francs: Spring 1906! (NB).

14) Attempts at renewal of the offensive.
I Duma (Spring 1906)... (Peasant Party + Social Democrats). Wave of strikes and last wave of peasant movement.
II Duma
(Spring 1907)... No peasant movement
weak wave of strikes.
15) State coup of June 3 (16), 1907. Beginning of the counter-revolutionary epoch until 1912.
16) Significance: (a) Russia is renovated (Leo Tolstoy regrets)
(β) Asia revolts (Turkey, Persia, China)
(γ) European workers' movement: Austria.
(δ) Model and prologue of the coming European revolution.
proletarian in a certain sense
Model and prologue in fourfold relation:
(a) Concrete conception of the growing activity of the masses ((strikes))
(β) The role of mass strikes
NB "latent socialism" (Engels).
*) The best exposition in German language: Rosa Luxemburg (in connection with the peculiarities of struggle in Western Europe)...
NB Polish pupils
245
[
p
203
Rosa Luxemburg: "Mass Strike, Party and Trade Unions"
(Hamburg 1906)
(γ) The drawing in of the military, the army, into the struggle.
(δ) Civil war. (Cf. Kautsky in "Social Revolution")
(4 9 0 2) "The Coming Revolution"... "will resemble less a sudden uprising against authority and more a protracted civil war"... p. 48.

b.
ADDITIONS TO THE PLAN.

Approximately 70 million desyatinas of large landholding
Approximately 70 " " " of poorest peasants
+Dissemination of Social Democratic literature
+National movements
+Jewish pogroms of October 1905: 100 cities, 4,000 dead, 10,000 mutilated
NB. Trotsky.

c.
REMARKS ON THE ARTICLE: MAX WEBER
"RUSSIA'S TRANSITION TO SHAM CONSTITUTIONALISM."

Europe is pregnant with revolution. Revolutionary situation is already at hand: governments at an impasse.
Horrors of war
Dearness of living
Burden of debts (hundreds of billions)
The bourgeois public, the opportunists, the social-patriots think that the revolution in Russia was something "extra-European" in the sense that this revolution did not touch Europe—that it belongs to the past and not to the future of Europe.
A great error! Once it was so in a backward country, where the proletariat was still too weak for victory and yet strong enough to lead the bourgeois-democratic revolution. It must again be so, it will certainly be so again in the most advanced countries of Europe, where the proletariat has long been strong enough to bring the masses of the exploited to social revolution, to the seizure of power, to the expropriation of the bourgeoisie, the banks (Financial capital) and large enterprises. The old may perhaps not live to see it. But the youth surely will...

Max Weber, p. 259 (95)
Note. It would be more correct to translate "uezd" with Bezirk (not "Kreis").
281 (53) (Note 42-a)—283: Beks and Meks. cf. 284 (120)
284 (56) Note. "Putsch" (December 1905)...
—id[em] 465 (1) Title
"The mass burning of manor houses": 179 (15)
î 319 (155), Note 232-a (Wilhelm II on expropriation) cf. 390 (220)
( 343 (115): (Note 86-b)
"the Leninist group and part of the Socialist-Revolutionaries had long prepared this senseless uprising"...
Max Weber (Dr. Professor) (1906): "On the Assessment of Contemporary Political Development of Russia"...

**FOOTNOTES:**

1 The document represents materials for the lecture "On the Revolution of 1905," written by Lenin in German. The lecture was delivered at a meeting organized by youth workers in the "People's House" in Zurich on January 22 (9), 1917. Lenin began work on the lecture in late December 1916, as is evident from his letter to Karpinsky of December 20, 1916 (see Works XXIX, 279). The complete lecture in German and Russian is given in Lenin Misc. V, 18—54, and in Russian in Works XIX, 313—357.

2 Engels's article in Neue Zeit, XX. Jahrgang, 1901—1902, Band I, pp. 5—13, under the title "Zur Kritik der sozialdemokratischen Programmentwurfes 1891" ("Critique of the Draft Social Democratic Programme of 1891"). Lenin discusses this work of Engels in detail in his pamphlet "The State and Revolution" (see Works XXI, 415—420).

3 This refers to the book: N. Trotsky. Russland in der Revolution. Verlag Baden et Co. Dresden. 1909. pp. 359 + V.

4 See Works XIX, 344—345, or in Lenin Misc. V, 22—23.

5 Lenin cites Struve's article "Urgent Tasks of the Times," published in no. 63 of Osvobozhdeniye of January 20 (7), 1905. In the lecture, Lenin adds the following words to Struve's statement: "To this 'highly educated,' haughty and archly-stupid leader of bourgeois reformists, the idea seemed absurd that an illiterate peasant country could give birth to a revolutionary people" (Works XIX, 344; Lenin Misc. V, 23). The quotation is taken by Lenin from the German edition of Trotsky's book, p. 59 (Russian edition, p. 80).

6 The strike statistics are provided by Lenin in the lecture (see Lenin Misc. V, 24—25).

7 The figures indicated mean: a) 45... (1895—1904)—"the average annual number of strikers in Russia during the 10 years before the revolution was 43 thousand" (Lenin Misc. V, 24—25; Works XIX, 346); b) 80 (1903)—during the all-Russian general strike in the south in 1903, 80,000 workers struck; c) 2,800 (1905)—"The total number of strikers (in 1905 ed.) was 2 million 800 thousand" (ibid.); d) 400 (January 1905)—"In January 1905, in the first month of the revolution, the number of strikers amounted to 440 thousand. Thus, in one month alone more than in the entire preceding decade" (ibid.).

8 In the lecture Lenin says: "Three major cities, where the most conscious and most numerous workers live, Petersburg, Riga, and Warsaw, produce an incomparably larger number of strikers in relation to the total number of workers than all other cities, not to mention the countryside" (see Works XIX, 346, or Lenin Misc. V, 26—27).

9 Lenin, reporting in the lecture that "peasants burned up to 2 thousand manor houses," then says: "Unfortunately, the peasants destroyed only one-fifteenth of the total quantity of noble estates, only one-fifteenth of what they should have destroyed in order to completely erase from the face of Russian land the shame of feudal large landholding" (see Works XIX, 353—354; Lenin Misc. V, 42—43).

10 This refers to the following passage from Trotsky's book: "In Kharkov, on October 10, after a meeting, a crowd seized a weapons warehouse. On the 11th, barricades were erected near the university by workers and students." (See the quotation in the Russian translation: Trotsky—1905. Giz. Moscow. 1922, p. 97. Hereafter all references to the Russian translation are provided from this edition).

11 This refers to the October general strike of railway workers and postal employees.

12 Reference to the following passage: "Many think," wrote Gorky, who was in Moscow at that time, "that revolutionaries began to build the barricades; this is of course very flattering, but not quite fair—it was the ordinary citizen, the non-party man, who began to build the barricades, and that is the essence of the event" (Russian edition, p. 223).

13 This refers to the following passage: "The uprising in Moscow lasted nine days: from December 9 (22) to December 17 (30)."

14 This refers to the book by Max Weber "Russlands Uebergang zum Scheinkonstilutionalismus" ("Russia's Transition to Sham Constitutionalism"). "Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik," vol. V, Tübingen, J. C. B. Mohr, 1906, pp. 165—401, from which the following passage is cited in the lecture: "The Leninist group... and part of the Socialist-Revolutionaries had long prepared this senseless uprising" (see Works XIX, 355, or Lenin Misc. V, 46—47).

15 Here reference is made to the following passage: "On December 12 (25), the drunks took a cannon from the dragons and artillerymen. For a quarter hour they fiddled with it, not knowing what to do with it. They were extricated from this difficulty by a large detachment of dragons and Cossacks, which seized the weapon" (Russian edition, p. 229).

16 This refers to the following passage: "The uprising cost the Moscow population about 1,000 souls killed and as many wounded. Among them 86 children, including infants. These figures become more striking if one recalls that on the streets of Berlin as a result of the March uprising of 1848, when Prussian absolutism received an incurable wound, only 183 corpses remained" (Russian edition, p. 232).

17 This refers to the following passage from a speech of a representative of the Executive Committee of the Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies at a meeting of the Soviet: "If we did not win the eight-hour workday for the masses, we won the masses for the eight-hour workday. From now on in the heart of every Petersburg worker lives his battle cry: eight hours and a rifle" (Russian edition, p. 178).

18 This refers to the passage about the rapid and decisive joining of technical troops recruited from workers to the revolution, and about the indecision and wavering of the infantry recruited from the peasantry (Russian edition, pp. 197—198).

19 In the lecture Lenin says: "With the suppression of the December uprising begins the descending line of the revolution. And in this period there are extremely interesting moments; one need only recall the twice-repeated attempt of the most militant elements of the working class to halt the retreat of the revolution and prepare a new offensive" (Works XIX, 356, or Lenin Misc. V, 48—49).

20 Lenin in the article "On the Electoral Campaign and Electoral Platform" (Works XV, 219) writes: "Leo Tolstoy said shortly before his death, and said with characteristic regret for the worst sides of 'Tolstoyism,' that the Russian people learned how to make revolution extraordinarily quickly." Here Lenin refers to the preface by L. N. Tolstoy to the album by N. Orlov "Russian Peasants" (the preface is dated June 26, 1908).

21 On the Russian revolution as a model for the European revolution, see Works XIX, 357, or Lenin Misc. V, 50—51.

22 In speaking of latent socialism, Lenin has in mind the following passage from Engels's letter to Sorge of February 22, 1888: "And here too the masses are increasingly coming under the sway of instinctive socialism, which fortunately resists any definite formulation according to any dogma of any so-called organization, and consequently in decisive moments it all the more easily masters them. Need but one point to be broken through somewhere and the bourgeoisie will be astounded at the hitherto concealed socialism which from that moment breaks through openly and becomes manifest" (Letters of I. F. Becker, P. Dietzgen, F. Engels, K. Marx and others to F. A. Sorge and others, ed. P. G. Dauge, 1907, p. 321).

23 It was not possible to establish whom Lenin had in mind. One word is written indecipherably: it looks like "Karevich."

24 This refers to the following passage from Trotsky's book: "In the black October debauch... 100 cities lost from three-and-a-half to four thousand killed and up to 10 thousand mutilated" (according to the Russian edition, p. 133) (see Works XIX, 355, or Lenin Misc. V, 46—47).

25 Lenin explains in his own words note 43 in the article by Max Weber "Russlands Uebergang zum Scheinkonstilutionalismus" in "Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik," vol. 23, 1906. All the following page references from Lenin follow this same Archive edition of Weber's articles. The corresponding volume of the Archive is indicated in parentheses.

26 In note 42a on p. 281 (53) of M. Weber's "Zur Lage der bürgerlichen Demokratie in Russland," published in "Archiv," vol. 22, it states: "The discord began at the second party congress (1903) with a struggle over the Iskra, published in Geneva until 1903 by Axelrod, Lenin, Martov, Plekhanov, Vera Zasulich and the 'Old Believer.' Only Plekhanov, Martov, and Lenin were re-elected. The last two stood at opposite positions both on questions of party organization (Lenin was a 'centralist'), and on tactics (Lenin was considered a 'Jacobin,' Martov a 'Girondin'). Plekhanov tried to reconcile both, but in the end also sided with Martov. Lenin left and founded Vpered, but Plekhanov too abandoned the Iskra editorial office in 1905 and afterwards published (alone) the Diary of a Social-Democrat (in irregular issues of one-half sheet, in octavo), which stood 'above the parties.'"

27 On the page indicated by Lenin, note 44a states: "... 'Revolution' was demanded by the Nachalo (no. 3) published with Plekhanov's direct participation, and it fiercely attacked the bourgeois liberals because they were not for it—knowing that the masses understood by the word 'revolution' something quite concrete. If the masses come out and the putsch ends in failure, if thousands of beardless ideologists in Moscow lie on the pavement as today (December 27), then the uprising will be declared 'unfortunate frivolity' and the opinion will be expressed that only with the sympathy of the bourgeoisie can revolution succeed. But if the masses in astonishment ask what in that case 'revolution' means, they will in astonishment hear that it means something highly abstract, far removed from what they understood by that word; just if they had listened to the orthodox instead of to the Socialist-Revolutionaries or to Leninist heretics! Exactly as a defender of miracles cornered against the wall saves himself by declaring genuine and in the end the only true 'miracle' precisely 'development' and the everyday course of things. Such two-faced tactics is not the product of any dishonesty. Plekhanov already expressed the same thing in the November issue of his Diary (no. 3, pp. 16 and 21)."

28 This refers to the title of Weber's article: "Russia's Transition to Sham Constitutionalism."

29 Here Weber states: "Much more important for the political evaluation of events is the question of what has actually been achieved by this regime. Major uprisings have of course been suppressed everywhere. Mass burning of manor houses has ceased, after it caused losses whose size can only be determined approximately (for 17 European provinces [out of 61] the official figure was 31.3 million rubles, in Saratov—a maximum of 9½ million rubles), and which insurance companies refused to compensate, citing the war clause, which is a sharp contrast to America after the San Francisco earthquake" (vol. 23).

30 Weber writes: "This newspaper (Novoye Vremya) had, among other things, the audacity to print in no. 10741 'a Report from its Correspondent,' allegedly that Emperor Wilhelm expressed to Kokovtsev, received by him during his passage through Berlin, his regret when he received a negative answer to the question of whether some project for expropriation of property was being prepared: 'It's a pity, this would give me a free hand. You in Russia forget that this is a question of international significance'" (vol. 23).

31 Lenin refers here to the following passage: "The 'Tatar' report, which apparently Gurko's vice-minister fabricated in the newspaper considered to be the official organ ("Rossiya"), about the readiness of Austria and Germany to undertake intervention in favor of the old regime, and which somehow was mentioned by Petrunkevich, increased the nervousness of the Duma."

See note 14 to the present document.